SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric just before the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions against the reclusive country.

The White House said North Korea's threats would only lead to Pyongyang's further international isolation and declared that the United States was "fully capable" of defending against any North Korean missile attack.

China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong said Beijing wanted to see "full implementation" of the new U.N. Security Council resolution that tightens financial restrictions on Pyongyang and cracks down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.

North Korea has accused the United States of using military drills in South Korea as a launch pad for a nuclear war and has scrapped the armistice with Washington that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

A North Korean general said on Tuesday that Pyongyang was scrapping the armistice. But the two sides remain technically at war as the civil war did not end with a treaty.

North Korea threatens the United States and its "puppet," South Korea, on an almost daily basis.

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

North Korea conducted a third nuclear test on February 12, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, and declared it had achieved progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal. It is widely believed that the North does not have the capacity for a nuclear strike against the mainland of the United States.

With tensions high on the Korean peninsula, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to expand its sanctions on North Korea. The new sanctions were agreed after three weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, which has a history of resisting tough measures against its ally and neighbor.

The resolution specifies some luxury items North Korea's elite is not allowed to import, such as yachts, racing cars, luxury automobiles and certain types of jewelry. This is intended to close a loophole that had allowed countries to decide for themselves what constitutes a luxury good.

"These sanctions will bite and bite hard," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

The export of luxury goods to North Korea has been prohibited since 2006, though diplomats and analysts said the enforcement of U.N. sanctions has been uneven.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, welcomed the council's move, saying in a statement that the resolution "sent an unequivocal message to (North Korea) that the international community will not tolerate its pursuit of nuclear weapons."

The success of the new measures, council diplomats said, will depend to a large extent on the willingness of China to enforce them more strictly than it has in the past.

Pyongyang was hit with U.N. sanctions in retaliation for its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. Those measures were subsequently tightened and expanded after several rocket launches by the North.

In addition to the luxury goods ban, there is an arms embargo on North Korea, and it is forbidden from trading in nuclear and missile technology.

George Lopez, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a former member of the U.N. panel that monitors North Korea sanctions compliance, said the new measures should have a real impact on North Korea's movement of money and constrain access to equipment for its nuclear and missile programs.

"Now, we may yet see another launch or a bomb test, but over the medium term this resolution will degrade DPRK capabilities to grow its program," Lopez said, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
THREATS AND WAR GAMES

North Korea's threats were the latest in an escalating war of words by both sides across the armed Korean border this week.
The North's unnamed foreign ministry spokesman said it would be entitled to take military action as of March 11 when U.S.-South Korea military drills move into a full-scale phase.

"North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and provocations. These will only further isolate the country and its people and undermine international efforts to promote peace and stability in northeast Asia," Rice told reporters.

President Barack Obama's administration said it had reassured South Korea and Japan "at the highest levels" of its commitment to deterrence, through the U.S. nuclear umbrella and missile defense, in the face of the new threats.

Glyn Davies, the State Department's point man for North Korea, also said in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing that Washington will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called for restraint and an end to the threats. "Let's keep our minds cool and keep focused on the need for the only possible rational course of action, and that is returning to six-party talks," he said.

North Korea, which held a mass military rally in Pyongyang on Thursday in support of its recent threats, has protested against the U.N. censures of its rocket launches. It says they are part of a peaceful space program and that the criticism is an exercise of double standards by the United States.

The North's shrill rhetoric, however, rarely goes beyond just that. Its last armed aggression against the South in 2010 came unannounced, bombing a South Korean island and killing two civilians. It was also accused of sinking a South Korean navy ship earlier in the year, killing 46 sailors.

South Korea and the United States, which are conducting annual military drills until the end of April, are watching the North's activities for signs that they might turn from an exercise to an actual attack, said South Korea's defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok.

Kim declined to confirm news reports that the North has imposed no-fly zones off its coasts in a possible move to fire missiles, but he said any flight ban limited to near the coast would not be for weapons with meaningful ranges.

South Korea's military said in a rare warning on Wednesday that it would strike back at the North and target its leadership if Pyongyang launched an attack.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Paul Eckert in Washington; Writing by Claudia Parsons; editing by Christopher Wilson)

This is some pretty scary stuff. However, even if they are serious about the nuclear strike, I don't think they necessarily have the capability to actually hit the US mainland. Maybe Hawaii or Alaska would be in the greatest danger, but I think our defense system should be more than capable of deflecting one missile.

What's most worrisome is the news that North Korea has scrapped the treaty signed in 1953 to end the Korean War. Especially when you realize that we have over 40,000 American troops in South Korea who would have a very short life expectancy if North Korea carried out a full scale attack on South Korea. When I was over there in 2000, we jokingly referred to ourselves as the "speed bump" of South Korea. It was a flippant reference to the fact that 40,000 American troops won't do anything but slightly slow down the estimated 1,000,000+ North Korean troops.

This posturing is no doubt coming from the recent change in leadership of North Korea. It is true that since that chap took charge they have once again begun work on long range intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Is Korea likely to attack the United States, absolutely not in a direct nuclear manner. I do not think that China would tollerate it, and I do not believe that it could be successful with the US Starwars programme in action.

Will North Korea attack South Korea...that is the danger in this situation. Personally...if the North Koreans lack the Chinese support, I dont think they would dare.

China is unusually linient to these small pockets of despotism in the south regions of Asia, they tollerate Mynmar, they tollerate North Korea...but it is a tolleration. China is like an elephant that could almost roll over in her sleep and squash these countries and their regiemes

To hear China calling for sanctions is an indicator that we are probably safe in terms of North Korea.

If North Korea does attack the South, it will be with a similar effect to Iran attacking Israel...the target is not the direct strike, but the hope that the retaliation will involve the United States and legitamate a justification in the eyes of the offender that they can then attack the US.

Thats why they wouldnt attack Israel or South Korea with nuclear weapons...they will save the nuclear weapons for attacking the US when, they hope, the US responds on behalf of south korea and/or Israel.

In the case of South Korea, I dont think we even need to worry about Missile attacks. If the North plans to wage war on the South it will be a full scale land invasion not a bombardment campaign. South Korea is isolated by the ocean. If the Americans or Japanese didnt get there in time, it would be a dunkirk situation where the southern koreans would be driven south right into the ocean.

However...I have got to say, I do think that its foolish for the South Koreans to do a military display infront of the North Koreans, whilst not an act of war, it certainly is a bit distasteful to parade your military infront of a people who really destest you...if anything is going to piss them off unneedfully, it would be that.

I dont know if the US has fortified South Korea enough to hold the peninsular, neither do I know how long/how close reinforcements might be. We dont know how quickly or how good the North Koreans actually are. They may have a lot of people...but, they dont really do anything but prance around...I'm not really thinking that they have combat expeirience. They are kinda untested recently.

I do not think that China would tollerate it, and I do not believe that it could be successful with the US Starwars programme in action.

I absolutely agree that China would probably be the first country to go after North Korea if they launched a nuclear missile at the US.

However, the North Korean military is not to be underestimated. The war with South Korea never actually ended, so every North Korean born within the last 60 years has grown up preparing for this war. In some ways, they are probably more well-trained than the US military. When an army has nothing to lose and everything to gain, then they are almost unstoppable.

Of course, the South Korean army is no slouch either. Those guys train more intensely than the US soldiers and they take it much more seriously. Because if the fighting breaks out again, their families, their homes and everything that they hold dear will be in danger. If anything keeps the American troops over there from getting slaughtered within the first few days of a North Korean invasion, it will be the South Korean army.

One example that I read about while I was over there: There was a hill that the South Korean army held during the war and the North Koreans poured everything they could into taking it. The North Koreans bombarded the hill with so much artillery that, over the course of 3 days, they lowered the elevation of the entire hill by 1500 feet. However, the South Koreans retained possession of the hill and never surrendered to the North.

That's the story we were told by the South Korean tour guides. I wish I could remember the name of the actual hill so I could look it up to verify.

its a scary thought

Hopefully all of this will die down after the new set of sanctions are verified, if China and the US are both in favour, we have to put our trust in that I suspect. I'm not sure where the Russians lie, but they seem a bit too preoccupied with Syria and Iran at the moment, but they have hinted at the six party talks, so we have to assume they want diplomacy.

We know where both Koreans lie...so that just leaves Japan.

Anyone know how Japan feels about all this? The Emporar strikes me as a very noble person, I cant believe that he would side with the North.

Japan sided with the US during the Korean War and has been our ally ever since, so there is no reason to believe that they would ever side with North Korea for any reason whatsoever.

Besides with as much as Koreans generally hate the Japanese people, I'm pretty sure that Japan NEVER wants to see North Korea become a nuclear power.

I did some research into this...Do you remember when President Bush added North Korea to the list of evil states? Well apparently Japan was all for that because North Korean Spies seemed to be accused by the Japanese Government of abducting their citizens during the 1970s and 1980s.

When the Obama Administration came to the table they aggreed to take the North Koreans off the evil list. Japan was apparently most disgusted by this and told President Obama that they believed that the North Koreans should stay on the Evil list until they explained what happened to their citizens

The paper I read basically says that Japan doesnt want North Korea to have nuclear weapoons almost exclusively because of its reasonably close proximity to their homeland. Their main reason for being included in the six party talks is purely to find out what happened to those abducted Japanese

I think your right that they will side against the North...but I also dont think they really give a toss what happens with the Korean peninsular so long as 1) they dont feel threatened as a nearby nation, 2) they find out what happened to their citizens

kim the younger probably watched the remake of red dawn and thought he could actually have a chance ... i wouldn't worry about a strike on the US mainland, don't think NK is capable of it .. i do worry that the US economy couldn't handle another war .... so i think the UN needs to sanction them hard and ensure South Korea has the best protection possible ...